Just returned from breaking in my grey GS and then heading out on a 2400 mile trip from Boston to Canaan Valley, WV by way of the Catskills, PA, MD and southeast OH on every mostly-paved goat path we could string together. Love the bike so far, with a few minor nits.

FWIW, we don't stop for many pictures because we're usually running 400 mile days, but below is a short, unedited video taken during a Saturday jaunt on a nearby Canaan road by a friend on his s1000rr following me (the indistinct blur up front, sorry) and my brother (2006 FZ1). Set quality to 720hd. I was hoping to get some better stuff where my friend was following me more closely, but he was having trouble getting the camera working right that day. This is the best of the 4 vids he was able to pull off it.

Just returned from breaking in my grey GS and then heading out on a 2400 mile trip from Boston to Canaan Valley, WV by way of the Catskills, PA, MD and southeast OH on every mostly-paved goat path we could string together. Love the bike so far, with a few minor nits.

FWIW, we don't stop for many pictures because we're usually running 400 mile days, but below is a short, unedited video taken during a Saturday jaunt on a nearby Canaan road by a friend on his s1000rr following me (the indistinct blur up front, sorry) and my brother (2006 FZ1). Set quality to 720hd. I was hoping to get some better stuff where my friend was following me more closely, but he was having trouble getting the camera working right that day. This is the best of the 4 vids he was able to pull off it.

Good:
-transmission broke in nicely after first 1000 miles
-gas mileage picked up from 39/40 mpg to 43-45 mpg after 800 miles
-suspension works very well after it broke in and softened up a bit. In Normal, its a bit more plush and slightly less damped than the Ohlins on my Ducati. In Soft, I can attack very bumpy goat paths, though I sometimes found soft to be a bit floaty when the road had big up/down sections. In Hard, its more damped and suitable for smooth and fast roads.
-chassis worked well. Very little driveline lash, though I was surprised that I could feel the shaft gears working thru my left boot, rather like chain drive (I've never had a shaftie). Love the telelever and linked ABS brakes combination, I could do stupidly late braking on just about any corner entrance if I saw any crap as the apex came into view.
-Dynamic mode worked best for my riding, although the big torque lump off idle could stand to be fixed with a remap. It bothered me coming out of tight first gear corners until I remembered that traction control will keep it from biting my ass. I didn't like Road as much because it had a few flat spots, most notably around 5500 rpm.
-the slipper clutch is great, altho it tends to make one lazy about rev-matching on the downshifts.
-tall OEM seat worked well, I didn't get sore until the last (7th) day of the ride.
-adjustable windshield was great for rain/bugs
-engine has great usable power and rev range. you can idle along at 5 mph in traffic, or run it up to 9500 rpm and back down with little vibrations. They did a great job with it.

Bad:
-the steering is too light at high speeds. I'm not saying tank-slappers are imminent, but any cross wind on the freeway will blow you around if you're not firmly gripping the bars. Also, in high-speed sweepers I could not throw the bike from upright to full lean with the same confidence as my ducati because it takes such a precise and delicate touch to avoid any wobbles as you pitch it over. Once its over its stable, but the transition is tricky.
Not sure what would "fix" it: steering damper (I'm looking for one now)? 17" front wheel? An eccentric adjuster on the A-arm to make it more road-worthy and less dirt-worthy? Its kind of a bummer that BMW did not go further in making this bike all things to all people.
- The dial speedo is useless, too small to read at speed. I added digital speed indicator to the right side, works much better.
- conti trail attacks stuck great, but the rear has a flat spot after only 2800 miles and very few freeway miles. I don't expect to get more than 6k out of these at this rate.

I'll probably add more as I think about it, this is a good start. As I said, not many nits.

Well I had to get my first service with only 600 klms on the clock. Has rained almost every day since I picked the bike up, first time in memory that I have had a first service under the recommended milage. I purchased the bike for this trip , if it hadn't been available as a walk out the door sale I would have been on my 12000 Multi Strada. I do a winter ride each year with a group of 5 or 6 , this year we had 5 bikes starting , and basically were heading from Sydney to Tamworth via the Putty and Glouster , Tamworth to Grafton via Dorrigo and some dirt, then back to Tamworth via Glenn Innnes Inverell and Barraba ,Tamworth Home via Putty.

So I got to ride in some rain some wet dirt roads windy conditions and sunny for the last day. My thoughts were as follows:-

The bike has great areo protection for my six foot frame. Heated grips not as warm as the Multi Strada's, road noise and buffetting much less than the Multi Strada.

The bike improved exponetially as the miles rose, I kept thinking how well the bike is sorted for a first year model. By the way I have the full spec version with wire wheels.

I thought the LED lights a bit lite on , I would have liked more light intensity, they are bright light the road signs up very well but don't seem to have the depth if that makes sense. The bike does seem to pick every bit of dirt and shit up that is on the road and throw it all over the bike, so cleaning will be a have to if your into keepingyour bike looking new.

I found the on road handling very good, bike tracks well and turns in more easy than the Ducati. A little less stable in the corners but this might be a case of getting used to the bikes handling characteristics.

All over I really thought this was a great riding experience, kept thinkingthis bike was so right for me and my style.

__________________If it has to Be then it's up to Me!
Bikes Multi Strada 1200 BMW GSA

Couple good things I forgot to mention:
-copious footroom, no banging my size 12s on the passenger pegs or centerstand footer (multistrada 12)
-love how narrow the bike is at the front of the seat around the back of the tank, almost as much as my old multistrada.
-deep gas tank neck works great when filling compared to my other bikes.

Adjustments: Aside from dashboard customizations, I adjusted the shift lever down a bit after 1000 miles or so to get more positive upshifts, and rolled the handlebars back about 10 degrees to lower the bars a bit for better cornering feel thru the bars. In general the BMW mechanic who set the bike up got it very close to perfect for me.

One small nit I forgot: BMW screwed up the brake lever placement (or length, take your pick). If you compare clutch to brake in OEM position, you'll see that the ramped portion of the brake lever runs further past the inside edge of the grip than the clutch lever does. If you use two-finger braking, your index finger ends up sliding down on top of the middle finger instead of staying side by side. This is easily fixed by moving the brake cylinder inward from the OEM bar mark about 5 mm. Think the problem is the handlebar marks didn't take into account the difference between left and right side caused by the GPS ring control.

To expand my comments on the steering: it steers a bit too much like my DRZ and not enough like my ducati, IMHO. I don't think this was a mistake so much as a deliberate design decision by BMW to make it steer like a dual sport. This seems ironic given how many complaints there have been on this site about the bike being too biased towards street riding. Though I'm close to the exact size rider the bike was designed for (6'1", 190 lbs), I still would have liked some amount of chassis adjustment available from the factory in the form of an adjustable ride-height link on the rear and/or an eccentric on the A-arm. YMMV, of course.

Note that I didn't get around to changing the preload from rider+luggage to two riders to see how this might have changed the steering dynamics.

I'll add another little issue, I find the reach to the rear brake lever a little to far, have to rotate my foot quite a lot to use rear brake, You cannot adjust the lever up , it is designed like thios. Might be more noticable with the boots I wear but would like the lever a little higher.

__________________If it has to Be then it's up to Me!
Bikes Multi Strada 1200 BMW GSA

I'll add another little issue, I find the reach to the rear brake lever a little to far, have to rotate my foot quite a lot to use rear brake, You cannot adjust the lever up , it is designed like thios. Might be more noticable with the boots I wear but would like the lever a little higher.

You need to adjust the height, as BMW set them too low at the factory. I, and many others have moved the light up, and it's much better.

Is this with the LED lights ? I have the LEDs did not feel range was an issue but more intensity ? I don't ride at night as a rule but on my recent trip spent an hour on the road in the dark, lots of Roos in the area. I felt the max speed for these lights would be around 100 kph , not that I wanted to go faster but for me the lights limited the speed in dark areas.

__________________If it has to Be then it's up to Me!
Bikes Multi Strada 1200 BMW GSA

Is this with the LED lights ? I have the LEDs did not feel range was an issue but more intensity ? I don't ride at night as a rule but on my recent trip spent an hour on the road in the dark, lots of Roos in the area. I felt the max speed for these lights would be around 100 kph , not that I wanted to go faster but for me the lights limited the speed in dark areas.

I agree with your light observation. This is not a hieght adjustment issue (which I have done). Around the city the LED is fine and it gives great daylight presence it just lacks a bit of grunt out in the sticks at night. Anyone got any auxiliary light recommendations including where to attach them?

One small nit I forgot: BMW screwed up the brake lever placement (or length, take your pick). If you compare clutch to brake in OEM position, you'll see that the ramped portion of the brake lever runs further past the inside edge of the grip than the clutch lever does. If you use two-finger braking, your index finger ends up sliding down on top of the middle finger instead of staying side by side. This is easily fixed by moving the brake cylinder inward from the OEM bar mark about 5 mm. Think the problem is the handlebar marks didn't take into account the difference between left and right side caused by the GPS ring control.

Not sure I follow your comment so this may be tangential. I did figure out that the adjustment of the brake and clutch levers made a huge difference for me. My bike was set up with the indicators at 4 and the levers were way to far away from the grip. I changed them to 1 and immediately noticed a difference. The clutch and brake levers now are like my '10 GS were. Just right.